Nintendo Wii Fanboy

After a delay, Carnival Games: Mini-Golf has arrived -- at least, in screenshot form. Now with a few more options, too, from the look of the shots.

Gamers are pretty split on the first title. Many think it's horrible beyond belief, and others defend it as a fun game for multiplayer get-togethers. The real judge, however, is the fact that it sold tons and tons, more than many other Wii titles! Think the sequel will live up to that?

One of the most well-known development tools in the world has been secured by 2K Games for some upoming titles. The Havok physics engine is used in squillions of high-profile games like Halo 3, Oblivion, BioShock and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Naturally, 2K wanted to acquire the license for none other than Carnival Games: Mini-Golf.

Before crying shovelware, the original Carnival Games sold over a million copies, so 2K is doing the right thing by wanting to get the best software for improving the series. A few other titles are also in line to use Havok, but no word on specific names as yet.

If you've been concerned that developers are using PS2 and PSP ports as a cheap, fast, and easy way to get games on the Wii, you just may be correct. Patrick Klepek, the new face at MTV's Multiplayer blog, took some time looking into the shelving of the Wii version of Civilization Revolution and some of the issues that led to the decision.

Klepek spoke with Scott Lewis, a programmer at Firaxis, and learned that the Wii version presented a challenge due to the need to create entirely new assets. What isn't addressed, however, is that the DS version likely required as much effort or care as the Wii version ... but as was revealed before, the Wii version was added late, and was releasing late, so it seems unsurprising that, when cuts had to be made, it was the one to go.

For now, it seems that multi-platform titles might offer a cheap and easy Wii solution, if there's already a PS2 or PSP version, but are cross-platform games really the answer for Wii owners? Are we that interested in them? Sometimes, Wii owners have no other real options, as they don't own another system, but we can't help but wonder how many people that really affects. While this move by Firaxis to nix the Wii version of Civilization Revolution (for now, at least) is disappointing, even this blogger -- a diehard Civ fan from way back in the way back -- finds herself more interested in new and innovative titles. More No More Heroes and less Need for Ports Speed. More Opoona, more Zack & Wiki ... and bring the development of these games up to the standard that Wii gamers deserve. Slapdash, hurried titles and last-gen ports are a huge reason third party developers are struggling in places on the Wii, and even the best, most deserving Wii titles suffer from a lack of mainstream advertising and promotion. Maybe it's time developers stopped relying on franchise names and started putting a little more effort in. Of course, well-done ports can work -- look at Resident Evil 4 -- but they're not the majority by far.

"I think the Wii would be perfect for a game like Civ, but we'd have to throw out all of our interface work (and some of our game design decisions) to make it feel like it truly fits on the platform," Lewis said. But will they do all of that? Even when there is an established name to trade on, we can only hope companies take the time to build something for the Wii rather than just throwing things together. Take your time, Firaxis, and build a Civilization for Wii owners. We'll be here.

At first, it was coming, and then it wasn't, and then it was ... and now, once again, Civilization Revolution is a no-go for Wii owners. An unnamed spokesperson for 2K Games confirmed to IGN that the Wii version has been put on hold indefinitely, and a poster by the name of Jason2K at the 2K forums reports that it's a simple matter of manpower. According to said poster, Firaxis didn't have the resources to work on four different versions of the game at once, and it looks like the Wii title, already set to release several months after the others, drew the short straw.

We can only hope to see Firaxis revisit the project in the future, as the Wii (and DS) are spectacular choices for the long-running franchise, considering that their control schemes can closely mimic that of the mouse. The title was set to feature online multiplayer and several features that are being implemented for the new console versions.

[Thanks, mian!]

We spent yesterday going through the big releases that've been announced for next year so far -- Smash Bros. Brawl and/or Wii Fit likely topping your personal "must get" list -- but what about the second-tier games that don't usually receive much press or attention?

Though we haven't forgotten about the low-key releases, we've collected a selection of games and media to ensure that these titles stay on your mind too! Read on for our top ten list of awesome 2008 games that you totally forgot about!

By now, we should have learned never to expect online multiplayer, or really, any online capabilities at all in Wii games, and yet still we hope. Is an online tennis-type sports game too much to ask for? Apparently, yes; Rockstar has confirmed that their Wii version of Table Tennis will not feature online multiplayer.

So what gives? Why is Rockstar's Table Tennis port lacking the online mode that graced Xbox Live? "All the focus is going into making it the most advanced control system on the Wii," said Rockstar reps, in what has to be the most disappointing explanation of the month. It's not like the two are mutually exclusive. The real question here is who's at fault -- Nintendo or Rockstar? -- but we may never know if it's the Wii's basic online infrastructure or lazy developers looking to put out ports as quickly as possible and using controls and "family-oriented" play as an excuse to avoid extra work.

The upcoming Top Spin Tennis doesn't look like it's set to feature online play, either; every time we see the game mentioned, the focus is on that "family-oriented" play, which, in our experiences, means forget connecting with anyone outside your home. We may be waiting a long time to take some sort of tennis or table tennis game online at this rate.